1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to an improved distributed computer system. More particularly, the present invention provides apparatus and methods for providing fine granularity alerting to customers.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic marketplaces on the Internet are becoming more prevalent. These electronic marketplaces provide a central location through which goods and service providers may be accessed. Through these electronic marketplaces, a user may place orders for goods and services and may obtain information about the goods and service providers, and the goods and services provided.
With many electronic marketplaces, when a customer submits an order, a generic estimate is provided as to when the order will be completed. For example, a marketplace may inform a customer that it takes between 3 and 5 business days to complete and ship the order. In other marketplaces, a customer may periodically log onto the marketplace to obtain an update of the current status of the customer's order.
The known systems, however, do not provide a mechanism for providing fine granularity alerts to customers based on the current status of the customer's order and the current location of the customer. In other words, the known systems do not provide the customer with alerts giving the customer an indication of when the customer should begin traveling from the customer's current location to a location where the order is to be completed.
Thus, it would be beneficial to have apparatus and methods for providing fine granularity alerts to customers to thereby provide them with an indication as to when they should begin traveling to a location where the order is to be completed.